The present invention relates to the severing of plastic material expelled from an extruder and the placement of the plastic material so severed, into a container. The present invention particularly relates to plastic material such as ice-cream, margarine or grease.
Hereinafter, it should be understood that the term "plastic material" is intended to mean a material which is so viscous that on the one hand it may be made to behave as a pliable solid which may be cut or severed, whereas on the other hand it may be caused to flow or be extruded as a plug by application of sufficient flow or extrusion pressure.
In the past, packaging of plastic material such as ice-cream into a container has been achieved by a number of different devices.
One such prior art device comprises a cylinder and piston which together meter and deliver ice-cream. In this device the cylinder is filled with ice-cream to a capacity which is metered by the displacement of the piston in the cylinder whereafter the ice-cream is delivered from the device into a container. Unfortunately such devices tend to be slow and have a capacity which is limited to that allowed by the maximum displacement of the piston in the cylinder.
A more preferred prior art arrangement has utilized an extruder to expel a cylindrical plug of ice-cream therefrom together with a separate cutting device which severs the plug from the extruder. As the extruder may be fed by one or more ice-cream manufacturing machines, such an arrangement is quite flexible in terms of capacity. The cutting device which consists of opposed blades which are scissored together to effect severance, is operated at timed intervals so enabling the plug severed from the extruder to fall therefrom into a suitably located container. Unfortunately, the plug so formed does not usually conform to the shape of the container and a subsequent pressing operation is required to evenly distribute the ice-cream within and across the container.
It would be desirable to devise a method and apparatus for delivering plastic material, such as ice-cream, margarine or grease, into a container by means of an extruder, which method and apparatus would entirely eliminate the need for a cutting device and which method and apparatus would also evenly distribute the plastic material across the container.